Siheyuan, integrating everything, cultivating the city

Li Xiangqian forced a smile and waved his hand, saying, "Zhu Zi, you don't need to do it today. You're busy enough. I can turn the soil myself. It's not a big job. Don't waste your time."

That evening, Li Xiangqian tiptoed out of the door. The streets were sparsely populated, and the dusk light was dim and soft, with a hint of confusing haziness. He walked along the street for a while, came to the door of the grocery store, looked up, and saw that the lights in the store were dim, revealing a bleak atmosphere. He took a deep breath and pushed the door open to enter.

The shop owner was an elderly man who was sitting behind the counter leisurely, wearing reading glasses and concentrating on reading a newspaper. Li Xiangqian walked up to him and asked softly, "Boss, do you sell rat poison here?"

The boss raised his head, pushed his glasses, and looked at him suspiciously: "Young man, what do you want rat poison for? I haven't heard of anyone having rats in their home recently." There was some suspicion in his eyes, as if he was guessing Li Xiangqian's true intentions.

Li Xiangqian smiled awkwardly and made up an excuse: "There are too many rats around my vegetable field. I'm worried that it will affect the harvest, so I want to buy some rat poison and put it by the field to scare them away." He didn't want to mention the snake. After all, snakes are wild creatures, and it would be a bit ridiculous to mention it out loud. He was afraid of being laughed at.

The boss nodded, and didn't seem to ask any further questions. He took out a small box and handed it to him: "This is specially used to treat rats. It works quite well, but you have to be careful not to let people or other animals eat it by mistake." As he spoke, he gave Li Xiangqian a few careful instructions and told him to use it with caution.

Li Xiangqian took the box and couldn't help but feel relieved. He quickly paid the money and walked out of the grocery store with the rat poison, intending to go home and make some arrangements immediately. However, his doubts were not completely eliminated, but became heavier because of the powder in his hand. After all, he was not sure whether this poison would work on snakes, and even doubted whether they would see through his plan.

Along the way, the night deepened and everything was quiet. Li Xiangqian quickened his pace and walked back to the courtyard. After returning to the courtyard, he first looked around the courtyard to make sure that no one was around, then he took out the bag of rat poison and carefully sprinkled some in the four corners of the vegetable field. He thought to himself: "Even if the snake is smarter, it should be afraid if it accidentally eats these drugs." He was full of expectations for his plan, hoping that the powder could bring him a sense of security.

However, after spreading the pesticide, Li Xiangqian stood by the vegetable field, looking at the dark ground, and suddenly felt a little uneasy. He couldn't help but murmur to himself: "Will it really work? Snakes are cunning animals by nature. Will they... not eat this thing at all?" This question made him uneasy, and he even had a vague premonition that the appearance of these snakes might not be just accidental.

Late at night, Li Xiangqian tossed and turned in his room, with countless thoughts in his mind. After a long time, he couldn't lie still, as if something was tickling his heart. He couldn't help but put on his clothes again, lit a small lantern, and decided to go to the vegetable garden to check if the snake really took any action.

When he gently pushed open the door, the yard was quiet, with only the faint moonlight shining on the ground, illuminating the surroundings. He held the lamp and walked towards the vegetable garden, carefully scanning the surroundings, his palms slightly sweating. He prayed in his heart: "I hope this rat poison can work and make these snakes retreat." But at this moment, he suddenly heard a slight rustling sound in his ears, as if something was moving in the dark.

Li Xiangqian's heart shuddered, and he suddenly stopped, holding his breath, and nervously looked in the direction of the sound. He stared at the darkness. The light was weak and could not illuminate too far, but he could vaguely see that there seemed to be a slender shadow slowly swimming at the edge of the vegetable field. His heartbeat quickened, and he tightened the handle of the lantern. An inexplicable fear surged in his heart - it was a snake, and it seemed to be wandering along the place where he had sprinkled the powder.

"They are really coming!" Li Xiangqian secretly groaned in his heart, not daring to take his eyes off the snake, fearing that he would miss its movements in the blink of an eye. The snake did not seem to be scared away by the powder, but gently bypassed the place where the powder was, with its head slightly raised, as if it was carefully sniffing something. Li Xiangqian's mood instantly fell to the bottom, and his inner anxiety was magnified to the extreme - this snake actually knew how to avoid rat poison!

"No, these snakes are definitely not ordinary snakes. They seem to really know the danger of these powders." He clenched his fists, feeling annoyed. He felt that he was as naive as a child, actually expecting such a simple method to deal with these snakes.

"Damn it, what should I do now?" He stood there, his heart was in turmoil, as if he was completely defeated by these snakes. Even rat poison couldn't do anything to them, so wouldn't this vegetable field become their "territory"? But if he had to give up the vegetable field, he would be very unwilling. He thought these snakes were just an accidental invasion, but he didn't expect them to be so stubborn and entrenched here, leaving him helpless.

Just when he was confused, the snake suddenly raised its head, as if it had noticed something, and turned its cold eyes to look directly at Li Xiangqian. Those cold eyes had a strange light in the night, as if they were hiding some unspeakable secret. Li Xiangqian was shocked by that gaze, and a layer of cold sweat instantly broke out on his back. He felt as if he had fallen into an ice cellar.

He couldn't help but take a few steps back, trying to avoid that gaze, cursing in his heart: "Damn snakes, they are so cunning, really hard to guard against." However, he knew that he couldn't keep running away. The vegetables in the vegetable garden were his hard work. It would be extremely unwilling to give up if he gave up because of these snakes.

He took a deep breath, forced himself to calm down, tried to suppress the fear in his heart, and murmured in a low voice: "Okay, since the powder can't deal with you, then I will try other methods! I don't believe you can really stay here forever!"

The next morning, Li Xiangqian searched his toolbox, took out various small tools, and decided to set up some physical traps around the vegetable field. Even if the snakes could bypass the powder, he didn't believe they could avoid all the traps. He made a few simple capture devices with sticks and thin wires, and even dug a few small pits and covered them with branches and leaves to try to catch the snakes.

While he was busy, he comforted himself: "It should work this time. No matter how cunning these snakes are, they can't see through so many traps." He spent the whole morning setting various simple traps around the vegetable garden. He took every step very carefully, trying not to leave any loopholes.